Highlights
The US naval war of 1917 | @01:10
The Ghost Fleet of Mallows Bay with Steve Bunker & Carrie Villar | @07:35
Living in NYC? Did a “Slacker” live in your apartment 100 years ago?  | @14:55
The Balfour Declaration - Promise of a Jewish Homeland in Palestine with Mike Shuster | @17:15
The worldwide history of Veterans Day | @22:05
Ceremonial Groundbreaking for America’s WWI Memorial in Washington DC | @24:10
Veterans Day Events | @24:30
Speaking WWI…  “Scrounge” | @28:00
100C/100M in Riverside IL with Joseph Baar Topinka | @29:30
International Report - Notre Dame Projection spectacular and documentary premiere | @36:20
Falling back to Daylight Standard Time - Blame the Kaiser | @37:35
The Buzz in Social Media | @39:35----more----
Opening
Welcome to World War 1 centennial News - It’s about WW1 THEN - what was happening 100 years ago this week  - and it’s about WW1 NOW - news and updates about the centennial and the commemoration.
Today is November 1st, 2017 and our guests this week are:
Steve Bunker of the Friends of Mallows Bay and Carrie Villar curator for the Ghosts of Mallows Bay exhibit at Woodrow Wilson House
Mike Shuster from the great war project blog,   
And Joseph Baar Topinka, Post Commander at American Legion Post 0488 in Riverside, Illinois.
 
WW1 Centennial News is brought to you by the U.S. World War I Centennial Commission and the Pritzker Military Museum and Library. I’m Theo Mayer - the Chief Technologist for the Commission and your host. Welcome to the show.
[MUSIC]
World War One THEN
100 Year Ago This Week
[MUSIC TRANSITION]
Today, we are looking at the war on the water.
The Atlantic Ocean was a major factor in the war 100 years ago. It wasn’t just a military battleground but an important strategic pivot.
Ships and mastery of the seas had been key factors in national strength for centuries. Fleets and armadas the stuff of legends...
but the conflict on the seas during WW1 is unique and comes down to a life and death struggle between the need to move goods, materiel and men versus the threat of small, stealthy and deadly raiders - the U-boats of WWI.
Like a small virus that can fell giants - the German U-boats are not just a threat to ships on the seas, but a deadly noose closing to choke the life out of nations.
So Let’s jump into our wayback machine and head back to 1917 to see how all this lays out and plays out.

[MUSIC TRANSITION]
We’ve gone back in time 100 years and we are looking back across the waters of the year of 1917.
In just the first four months of 1917, U-boat raids reduce the British grain supply to just six weeks by sinking 1,365 ships. The Kaiser’s Navy believes that by using unrestricted submarine warfare on all shipping, it can blockade England into surrender whether the U.S. intervenes in the war or not.
They are killing transports faster that replacements can be built and they know they are hurting the brits - a lot!
England imperial economy is hugely dependent on imports of food and raw materials,  and at the current rate of sinking it’s supply lines, it is quite possible the England and then the allies might lose the war…
not to the millions of poor souls slugging it out in the trenches - but to an effective fleet of just a few hundred submarines... each typically only 214 feet long, carrying 35 men, 12 torpedoes, mines and capable of traveling underwater for two hours at a stretch.
As America enters the war in April of 1917, the US Navy strategy is not focused on this threat at all.
It's strategic focus is on building a POWER navy headed by giant battle cruisers and dreadnaughts…
The Naval Act of 1916 authorizes the building of ten battleships and six battle cruisers -- 32 thousand and 42 thousand ton behemoths sporting massive 16" guns, supported by scores of cruisers, destroyers and new submarines. This is a big iron --- power strategy -- based on what is known as Capital Ships - ready to fight in the atlantic, caribbean and Pacific  - perhaps all at once… a prophetic vision